New Minnesota Twins TV Deal with Bally Sports North official

Judge Chris Lopez says he "happily approves" the Guardians, Rangers, Twins agreements to stay with Diamond and Bally for 2024. "A huge step forward," Lopez says. Now it's official.

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 9, 2024

Unfortunately for cord-cutting Twins fans, streaming rights are expected to remain the exact same as they were last season, which we touched on in more detail last week, when news of this agreed-upon contract first came to light.

Related: Derek Falvey Says Twins are Still Working on More Potential Moves

In summary, unless you have the regional sports network as part of your cable, satellite or catch-all streaming provider (like Fubo TV), you will not be able to stream Twins games this summer, if you live within the local broadcast market.

Twins, Diamond request financial documents be sealed from public

As unfortunate as the bad streaming news is, it’s not new. What was new this morning, and what certainly caught the attention of Evan Drellech (The Athletic) was an unusual request made in the courtroom via one of Diamond Sports Group’s attorneys, who asked the judge to make sure that all financial information or any documents containing terms of the new agreements be sealed from the public.

Diamond’s attorney claims that the financial information contained in those records is “highly confidential” and that “the teams would not like [the terms of the agreements] in the public forum”.

I will translate: "Please don't tell fans or the media how much we are paying the teams."

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 9, 2024

As of now, it has not been made clear whether or not the judge accepted Diamond Sports Group’s request to seal the terms of this new agreement, or if he’s expected to.

Pohlads don’t want you to know how cheap they are being

It is very interesting, though. I’ve written recently about reports that the Minnesota Twins do not plan to increase the shrunken player payroll budget, which they announced at the beginning of the season, no matter how much of the lost TV revenue (~$65 million) they recovered in this new Bally Sports North contract.

Related: Will Carlos Santana Play 1st Base or DH for Minnesota Twins?

Thus, it would make sense that the Pohlads do not want us to know how much of their TV revenue they were actually able to save. Team presidents Dave St. Peter and Derek Falvey have talked incessantly the last few months about how much TV revenue uncertainty negatively impacted their ability to spend and make moves this offseason.

But of course, now that there is no more TV uncertainty, and even if they recouped most of that money back, they still aren’t going to bump payroll back near where it was in 2023. So it makes sense they wouldn’t want us to know how much TV money they are putting into their billfold this season, instead of back into the roster.

If were doing shady baseball owner things, I wouldn’t want anyone to know the details surrounding my inexplicable actions either.

Texas Rangers cutting payroll too

Recently, we found out they aren’t the only MLB team using payroll slashing practices to ease stress on their 2024 pocketbook. It turns out the Texas Rangers – whose games are also broadcast on TV by Bally Sports — are unlikely to pay top starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery for the same reason.

The Rangers seem unlikely to bring back Jordan Montgomery due to the financial uncertainty of losing local TV deal.

Per, @Ken_Rosenthal pic.twitter.com/ndI8VWuzf1

— Texas Rangers Insider (@RangersInsiders) December 8, 2023

Over half of Major League Baseball has Bally Sports as their TV broadcasting partner. While the Twins contract with Diamond Sports (Bally’s parent company) expired after last season, it’s expected they will drop all contracts with pro sports teams after the 2024 MLB season, due to their ongoing bankruptcy.

Related: Jorge Polanco, Max Kepler Drawing More Trade Interest, as Twins Wait…

I’d be hard-pressed to believe the Twins and Rangers are the only MLB organizations tweaking future roster and staff payroll decisions based on future television revenue uncertainty. There will be others, though most won’t say it publicly like these two have.

Do not accept Minnesota Twins excuses, no matter how many other teams use the same ones.

But this news doesn’t vindicate the Pohlads. There’s no need to make excuses for the Twins or other billionaire MLB owners. Why do the business people operating these organizations choose to harm their relationship with local fan bases just to save a quick buck in the short-term?

Having $50+ million in flux seems like a lot, until you factor in all the numbers. Like the numbers showing major professional U.S. sports teams jump $100s of millions in value every year, lately.

Related: TV Blackouts Will Not Exist in Minnesota Twins New Broadcasting Age

The Minnesota Twins latest valuation (Statistica) has them worth about $1.4 billion, more than double what they were worth less than 10 years ago in 2014 ($605 million) before they moved into Target Field, which local citizens paid half of.

In all reality, the Twins would be worth more than what this valuation says. According to Sportico, the average MLB team is worth closer to $2.5 billion. The Kansas City Royals sold for $1 billion in 2020 and the Mets went for $2.4 billion the same year. The Marlins sold in 2018 for $1.4 billion.

But tell MLB teams like the Twins and Rangers that they will have to work a little harder to make their standard $50-100 million in TV revenue for a season or two and owners start panicking and cutting payroll, among other things. Classic.